Jatropha Urnes

      Spurge nettle. Tread softly. (Southern United States.) *N.O. Euphorbiaceae. Tincture of fresh plant.

Clinical

Cardiac paresis. OEdema.

Characteristics

According to Allen this is the most poisonous plant known. He quotes from the *Kew Gardens Quarterly (December 1851) the experience of Mr. Smith, who touched his wrist against the fine bristly stings of the plant while reaching over it. He experienced these symptoms: numbness and swelling of the lips. The action of the poison was on the heart, circulation stopped and Mr. Smith soon fell unconscious, the last thing he remembered being cries of “Run for the doctor!” Other *Jatropha are *J. glauca or *glandulifera of the East Indies, the seeds of which when crushed yield an oil which is used as an external application against rheumatism, and *J. podagric, which has curious nodulated gouty looking stem.

John Henry Clarke

John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica